Unless otherwise configured, the client libraries use Application Default Credentials to authenticate with Google Cloud Services. While this works for most applications, in some cases you may need to override this default. You can do so by providing the UnifiedCredentialsOption The following example shows how to explicitly load a service account key file:
[](std::string const& keyfile) {
auto is = std::ifstream(keyfile);
is.exceptions(std::ios::badbit); // Minimal error handling in examples
auto contents = std::string(std::istreambuf_iterator<char>(is.rdbuf()), {});
auto options =
google::cloud::Options{}.set<google::cloud::UnifiedCredentialsOption>(
google::cloud::MakeServiceAccountCredentials(contents));
return google::cloud::serviceusage_v1::ServiceUsageClient(
google::cloud::serviceusage_v1::MakeServiceUsageConnection(options));
}
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe latest available version is 2.37.0-rc, with numerous other versions from 2.36.0 down to 2.11.0 also being accessible.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eClient libraries generally use Application Default Credentials for authentication with Google Cloud Services, unless an alternative is specified.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eUsers can override the default authentication by utilizing the UnifiedCredentialsOption, which is exemplified by loading a service account key file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor security and management best practices on service account keys, refer to the provided guide on managing service account keys.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Authentication Components documentation provides information on creating \u003ccode\u003egoogle::cloud::Credentials\u003c/code\u003e objects.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,[]]